Sharp County record., 1887-01-27

the head with psalm book 1t may be
| that some partner in business, who was
member of an evangelical church, played
on you trick that disgusted you with re-
ligion, 1t may be that you have associates
who have talked against Christianity in
your presence until you are "all at sea-"
| and you dwell more on things you do not
believe than on things you do believe. You
are in one respect like Lord Nelson, when
signal was lifted that he wished to disre-
gard, and he put his sea glass to his blind
eye and sald: Il really do not see the sig
naln o, my hearer, put this field glass OF
the Gospel no longer to your blind eye and
say can not see, but put it to your other
eye, the eye Of faith, and you will see
Christ, and He is all you need to see.
If yos can believe nothing else, you GER
tainly believe in vicarous suffering, for
you see it almost every day in some shape.
Last month the steamship KnickerbOcker,
of the Cromwell line, running between
New Orleans and here, was in great
storm, and the captain and crew saw the
schooner Mary D. Cranmer in distress.
The weather cold, the waves mountain
high the first officer Of the steamship and
four men put out in life-boat to save the
crew of the schooner, and reached the YES
sci and towed it out of danger, the wind
shifting so that the schooner was saved.
But the five men Of the steamship coming
back, their boat capsized, yet righted
agaln and came on, the sail
ors coated with Ice. The boat
capsized again, and three times upset and
was righted and line was thrown the
poor fellows, but their hands and arms
were frozen so they could not grasp it, and
great wave rolled over them, and they
went down, never to rise till the sea gives
up it's dead. Appreciate that heroism and
self-sacrifce of the brave fellows we all
can, and can we not appreciate the Christ
who put out in a more biting cold and into
more overwhelming surge to bring us
out Of infinite peril into everlasting safety!
The wave of human hate rolled over him
on one side, and the wave OF hellsh Jury
rolled over Him on the other side. On, the
thickness of the night and the thunder OF
the tempest into which Christ plunged for
our rescued
Come in on that one narrow beam, the
beam of the cross. Let all else go and
cling to that. Put that under you, and
Cling for his life put out for the shore.
There is a great warm fire OF welcome
already built and already many, who were
as far out as you are, are standing in its
genial and Heavenly glow. The angels OF
Cod s rescue are wading out into the SURF
to clutch your hand, and they know how
exhausted you are, and all the redeemed
prodlgals of Heaven are on the bench with
new white robes to clothe all those who
come in on broken pieces of the ship.
NV sympathies are for such all the more
because l was naturally skeptical disposed
to question every thing about this life and
the next and was in danger Of being turth-
er out to sea than any of the two hundred
and seventy-six in the Mediterranean
breakers, and l was sometimes the annoy
ance of my theological professor because
asked so many questions. But | came in
on plank. l knew Christ was the Saviour
of sinners, and that l was a sinner, and
got ashore, and do not propose to go out
on that sea again. I have not for thir-
ty minutes discussed the controverted
points of theology in thirty years. And
during the rest Of my life l do not propose
to discuss them for thirty seconds
I would rather, in i mud scow, try to
weather the worst cyclone that ever swept
up from the caribbean than risk my i'm
mortal soul in useless and perilous discus
sions in which some of my brethren in the
ministry are indulging. They remind me
of company of sailors standing on Rams
gate pier head, from which the life-boats
are usually launched, and coolly discussing
the different style of oar-locks and how
deep boat ought to set in the water, while
hurricane was in full blast and there
are three steamers crowded with passen-
gers going to pieces in the Otling. An oldtar,
the muscles Of his face working with nerv-
Gus excitement, cries out: This is no time
to discuss such things. Man the lite-boat.
Who will volunteer! Out with her into
the surf! Pull my lads, pull for the wreck!
Ha! hal now we have them. Lift them in
and lay them down on the bottom Of the
boat. Jack, you try to bring them to. Put
these fannels around their hands and feet
and l will pull for the shore. God help
me! There! Landed Huzzam When
there are so many struggling in the waves
Of sin and sorrow and Wretchedness, letall
else go but salvation for time and salvation
forever.
l bethink myself that there are some
here whose opportunity or whose life is
mere wreck, and they have only small
piece left. You started in your youth with
all Sails set, and every thing promised
grand voyage, but you have sailed in the
wrong direction or have foundered on
rock. You have only a fragment OF time
left. Then come in on that one plank.
''Some on broken pieces of the ship"
You admit that you are all broken up,
one decade of your life gone by, two de-
cades, three decades, four decades, or
half century, perhaps three-quarters of
century gone. The hour hand and the
minute hand of your clock Of life are al
most parallel, and soon it will be twelve
aud your day ended. Clear discouraged,
are youa l admit that it is a sad thing to
give all Of your lives that are worth any
thing to sin and the devil, and then at last
to make God a present of a frst-rate
corpse. But the past you can not recover.
Get on board that old ship, you never will.
Have you only one more year left, one
more month, one more week, one more
day, one more hour-come in on that Per-
haps if you get to Heaven God may let you
go out on some great mission to some other
world, where you can somewhat atone for
your lack of service in this.
From many death-bed l have seen the
hands thrown up in deploration something
like this: "My life has been wasted l had
good mental faculties, and fine social posi-
ton, and great opportunity, but through
Worldliness and great neglect all has gone